Mumbai: Solid employment numbers in the US gave a boost to oil Friday, though only a small one.
Benchmark US oil for July delivery rose 18 cents to close at $102.66 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Oil traded in a narrow range all week and ended with a decline of 15 cents. Brent crude, a benchmark for international oils, slid 18 cents to $108.61 a barrel.
The US Labor Department said employers added 217,000 jobs to their payrolls in May, in the range of what economists had expected. The unemployment rate stayed put at 6.3 percent. Heading into the weekend, US drivers are paying an average of $3.66 a gallon at the gas pump. That's down 1 cent from a month ago, but 3 cents higher that at this time last year. In other energy futures trading on Nymex:
- - Wholesale gasoline fell 2 cents to $2.94 a gallon.
- - Natural gas rose 1 cent to $4.71 per 1,000 cubic feet.
- - Heating oil dipped 1 cent to $2.87 a gallon.
